The Hat That Changed Everything

The pool party was everything I dreaded. People I barely knew from school, swimsuits that showed way too much skin, and the inevitable question: why are you wearing that **hat** inside?

My baseball cap was basically fused to my head at this point. A security blanket. A please-don't-notice-me force field.

"Maya! You made it!" Jess called from the **padel** court in her backyard. Because apparently normal people just have padel courts now. "We're doing mixed doubles!"

I shrugged toward the snacks table, pulling out my **iphone** to look busy. Scrolled through nothing. Checked apps I'd already checked three times.

"You're not gonna play?"

I looked up. Liam. The guy I'd had a crush on since seventh grade was standing there, wet hair dripping, shirt nowhere in sight.

"I don't... I don't really do sports," I mumbled.

He laughed. "Neither do I. I'm terrible. That's kind of the point."

Next thing I knew, I was holding a racket, sweating through my swimsuit cover-up, and somehow laughing so hard my stomach hurt. Every time I missed the ball, Liam made it worse by doing this ridiculous commentary voice.

Then it happened. My **iphone** slipped from my pocket and straight into the pool.

The world stopped. My phone. My everything. My social life, my tickets, my photos—

"I'll get it," Liam said, and dove in.

When he surfaced, shaking **water** from his hair, my phone was ruined but I was smiling. Actually smiling. The hat was still on, but I didn't need it anymore.

"It's fine," I said. And the crazy part was, I meant it.

Later, as we sat on the deck waiting for my phone to hopefully resurrect, Liam handed me a charging **cable** he'd found inside. "For when it decides to work again."

"Thanks," I said, and our fingers touched.

Sometimes the worst moments lead to the best ones. And sometimes you take off the hat.

Well. Eventually.